The supposed benefits – taking back control of the country’s borders and striking new trade deals with fast-growing economies – are harder to quantify because they represent a leap into the unknown.

For the travel and tourism industry uncertainty still surrounds airline flying rights and what will happen to EU migrant workers. The current UK government has signalled that it wants to limit immigration. Tighter border controls will lead to bigger queues unless the UK beefs up its border force.

But what about the potential benefits? In what ways might leaving the EU actually help UK tourism?

Reforming the Common Agricultural Policy

The Common Agricultural Policy is one of the cornerstones of the EU and has been around in various forms since 1962. Farmers in member states receive direct payments, helping to ensure the EU produces enough of its own food.

Now, you might be wondering what this has to do with tourism. Well, program also funds some rural tourism activity.

The problem, according to Kurt Janson, director of the Tourism Alliance lobbying group, is that the amount available for tourism under the current agreement is tiny.

Leaving the EU and the Common Agricultural Policy would allow the UK to create its own agricultural policy, which could place more of an emphasis on tourism.

“It probably wouldn’t surprise you to know that for billions of pounds spent on CAP in the UK, only 2 percent of that funding is available for tourism businesses in rural locations, despite tourism businesses in rural locations earning more money than agricultural operations in rural areas and employing more people,” Janson said at a Westminster Media Forum event earlier this week entitled: The UK Tourism Industry Post-Brexit – Skills, Investment and the Industrial Strategy.

Boosting Air Connectivity

The EU’s state aid rules mean that member states are can only use these monies to help their very smallest airports (nothing above 3 million passengers). When the UK leaves the EU, it will in theory be able to subsidize any airport of any size. Airports like Bristol and Leeds Bradford could benefit from the extra investment.

“Once we’re outside the EU the government will be able to pump-prime new routes into the regions to get the regional dispersal the government wants as part of its tourism strategy,” said Jansen.

Cheap(er) Travel… For Now

One of the obvious upsides for the UK travel industry in the wake of the Brexit vote was the fall in the pound. After June 23, 2016, tourists saw the UK as a better value to visit. For the first 10 months of 2017, holiday visits rose 13 percent to 13.4 million.

Spending has also increased, up 10 percent to $29.8 billion (£20.9 billion).

“The impact that the fall in the price in the pound… has on inbound is really quite significant,” said Deirdre Wells CEO of trade body UKinbound. “One of the things that we’ve been doing is trying to capitalize on that to really, I suppose, reinforce the value proposition that the UK can offer. But this is not something that will last forever as the on-costs will eventually find a way into the supply chain [and] there are various other challenges that will impinge on the industry…”

But, There’s a Catch

It is true that all these measures might eventually end up helping tourism. However, they are contingent on the UK exiting the EU painlessly — something that looks increasingly unlikely to happen.